Tie My Heart Back Together With String
by AbigailKinney4life
Summary: What if it wasn't Alisha that future Simon had come back for, what if it was Nathan. What happens when Nathan discovers the true identity of the guy in the mask? What happens when he finds out that he came back for him?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Misfits or any of it's characters, they belong to their respective owners.

Tie My Heart Back Together With String

Nathan had finished his community service for the day about an hour ago and was ambling around the estate for no reason at all.

Sometimes the community centre was really fucking boring and Nathan liked to get out of there for a while every now and again.

He knew Kelly was going for a drink with some of her friends and he had contemplated joining her but if he was being honest with himself he was just too fucking tired.

He just wanted to go back to the centre, maybe have a wank, then go to sleep.

"Oi, you!" Nathan's thought process was interrupted by a male's voice calling out to him. Turning around, Nathan watched as a big bruiser he didn't recognize came walking up to him.

"What?" Asked Nathan, "do I know you?"

"You're that prick that's sleeping with my girlfriend."

Nathan's eyes went bambi-wide and a genuine confusion swept through him. "Listen, mate-" he began, gearing up for some sort of confrontation. "Even though that does sound like exactly the sort of thing I would actually do...It wasn't me that shagged your girlfriend. All right?"

But the guy stood in front of him didn't look all right at all, he had at least a foot on Nathan and besides his mouth, Nathan didn't have much going for him in the way of defense.

"Look, calm down." He tried again. "You got the wrong guy."

"I'm going to beat the living crap out of you!" The bruiser announced, swinging his gargantuan right fist towards Nathan's face.

Nathan ducked quickly and the fist just skimmed over his hair, but he lost his footing and fell to the floor.

But before he could think of anything else, he spotted a dark figure out of the corner of his eye running along the rooftops.

Hoping beyond hope that he was right about this, Nathan rolled out of the way of the bruisers second punch and called out:

"Oh, so you've finally decided to make yourself useful!"

Less than a second later, the guy in the mask that neither Nathan nor his friends could identify dropped from a building and landed next to the bruiser.

"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?" The angry man said, turning to the guy in the mask.

Nathan watched in amazement as the ski-masked man rained one, two, three punches to the surprised bruiser and sent him running across the estate, shouting profanities back to the pair of them.

"Well, are you going to help me up?" Asked Nathan when the masked man turned to him.

Apparently, having regarded Nathan with a quick look, he decided not to help him up and Nathan watched as he scaled one of the grey buildings and ran onto the roof and out of sight.

Nathan pushed himself up and craned his neck to try and see where the guy in the mask was going.

"Hey!" He called out after him, but no one called back.

He was alone.

…

"So this big fucker was giving it all that, saying that I'd shagged his girlfriend or some nonsense..." Nathan explained. Simon, Kelly, Curtis and Alisha were all stood around him in the community centre locker room, listening intently. "Then that guy in the mask turns up out of no where, saves me from getting my arse kicked, not that I needed saving-" he quickly clarified, earning himself a few eye rolls. "Then he just fucks off, what's that all about?"

"He's never stuck around before." Simon reminded him quietly. Nathan pulled a face at him then returned his attention to the group.

"So, did you do it?" Curtis asked.

Nathan fixed him with a confused stare. "Did what?"

"Did you sleep with that guy's girlfriend?"

"No!" Nathan replied indignantly, "is that the sort of thing I would do?"

He saw some of looks he got around the group and rolled his eyes. "All right, do you lot really think I'm organised enough to cheat with someone?"

"Yeah, he's got a point." Said Alisha eventually.

Nathan shook his head. "That's not the point, the point is, that weirdo turned up again and saved me. How the hell did he know what was going to happen?"

"Are you all right?" Kelly asked, looking at Nathan, forehead creased in concern.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Nathan brushed her off, too preoccupied with the guy in the mask to care about much else.

"He seems to know everything." Simon said aloud, like he was wondering it himself.

"Maybe he's spying on us?" Alisha pointed out, "I mean, he does always turn up when we're in trouble."

Nathan felt an idea spark into his brain and his face broke out into a grin. "Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" He said, zipping up his orange jump suit.

…

All the guy's Nathan has scoped out so far wouldn't do, they were either too scary or too dodgy-looking. He just wanted to find someone nice and easy to pick on, he momentarily wondered where Barry was.

He saw a man walk towards him and he quickly leant against a concrete wall to try and look as normal as possible.

He waited for a moment until the man has passed him until he shouted out, "I'll give you 50 quid for a blow job."

The man immediately turned around, face pulled down into a grimace. "What did you just say?"

Nathan pushed himself away from the wall, more confident now. "You heard, and for an extra hundred I'll let you have your way with me, I mean, you do look like a perverted queer that needs to pay for sex."

He momentarily wondered if he should be worried that this sort of thing came naturally to him but he didn't really have enough time to worry as the man he had just called a perverted queer practically snarled at him.

"Come here, you dick!" He called out, Nathan looked desperately above him, waiting to see that familiar black blotch running across the rooftops, but there was nothing.

He closed his eyes momentarily. "Well, now is a great time to decide to stop following me, thanks." He said quietly to himself as he watched the man advance on him.

"Listen, mate..." Nathan tried, but the man lashed out and Nathan felt his head smash heavily against the concrete wall. His whole vision swam before his eyes and the last thing he saw before he passed out was the guy in the mask running towards him.

…

Nathan felt like he was coming out of some kind of weird dream as his eyes focused and he realized he was no longer lying on the cold concrete of the floor. He rubbed his eyes and saw that he was lying in a large bed, a large bed that was not his own.

His eyes struggled to focus and the main thing he could see was grey.

After a moment, he felt a throbbing pain swarm in his head and he let out a surprised gasp and his hand instinctively flew to his head.

He could feel something there that wasn't supposed to be there, retracting his hand he crawled slowly out of the large grey bed and saw a mirror close to him.

Inspecting himself, he looked past his tired eyes and focused entirely on the dried blood on the side of his head that was slowly cracking.

Nathan closed his eyes as another wave of pain shot through him. His eyes opened almost immediately as something occurred to him. He looked closer into the mirror, trying to see if there was any actual wound on his head because he might have died again.

Checking his underwear just to be safe, Nathan felt himself growing thoroughly pissed off about his head. Looking around, he tried to ascertain where the hell he actually was.

It just looked like one big, grey...room. It was like an open-planned flat and from his place at the bed, Nathan could see a kitchen and a sofa.

The whole ceiling was covered in mad lighting that was starting to make his already over-sensitive head hurt.

He walked towards one of the walls, it was littered with digital clocks and scraps of paper and Polaroid photographs.

Upon closer inspection, Nathan saw that the photographs were of them. Him and Kelly and Barry and the rest of them. Alisha was right, the guy in the mask was spying on them.

"Sick bastard." Said Nathan quietly to himself.

He wandered around the flat for a few moments more before he heard the familiar sound of a shower going. He licked his lips in anticipation.

Nathan walked slowly towards the sound of the shower, he stopped as he saw a metal railing with the guy's ski-gear hanging from it.

Eyeing it for a moment, he turned and saw him in the open shower. It was a man, but Nathan had expected as much.

He had sort of short hair and he was muscular...Nathan momentarily wondered if it was kind of weird for him to be perving on some guy in the shower but he quickly shook it off.

He figured this guy owed him some answers, naked or not.

He'd obviously heard Nathan walking up behind him but he slowly turned to face him, the water dripping down his face. It was Simon.

"Shit!" Nathan exclaimed loudly, immediately taking off in the other direction.

Simon didn't make a sound as he turned the shower off and ran a towel over himself, Nathan approached the large bed and began to frantically search for his jacket.

He hadn't even realized it had been missing, Simon must have taken it off of him, the sick...

"Nathan."

The word was calm and collected, Nathan spun around and saw Simon stood staring at him. He had put on a pair of tracksuit bottoms but remained shirtless, he was surprisingly toned.

Nathan laughed cruelly at him. "I knew this was the sort of thing you'd get up to in your spare time, pretending you're a fucking superhero!" Nathan gestured to the wall of photographs. "And keeping pictures of everyone? I mean, I always knew you were a sick pervert but what the hell are you playing at, jumping off of buildings...?"

Simon just stood there, patiently waiting for Nathan's rant to end, he knew he would eventually run out of steam.

Realizing he wasn't getting any reaction from Simon, Nathan fell silent. He merely stared at the man for a long moment before he finally spoke again.

"Simon, since when are you the guy in the mask?"

The sentence made Simon smile slightly, this may well have been the first time Nathan had ever called him Simon.

Nathan was staring at him with a look of total confusion and desperation.

"Ever since I traveled back from the future."

Within a matter of seconds, Nathan's cocky demeanor was back and he rolled his eyes, finally spotting his jacket out of the corner of his eye.

Reaching over the bed, he picked up the black material and proceeded to slip it hurriedly over his arms.

"Of course you did." He finally said sarcastically.

"Yes," Simon agreed, "I did."

Nathan stopped for a minute and stared at him, what the hell was going on? "Seriously? You...traveled back from the future."

Simon merely nodded again. "Yes, I did." He repeated.

Simon couldn't tell what sort of emotion was going through Nathan's mind at this point, but after a moment he seemed to regain his composure.

"So that means there are two annoying bastards running around?"

Simon laughed before he spoke. "Yes, there is. But you can't tell anyone I'm here, especially Simon." That last bit was serious.

Nathan stared at Simon for a long moment, he didn't know what the fuck he was supposed to think. "You're...so different." He eventually decided on.

Simon looked at him questioningly and Nathan shrugged.

"Well, you know, you're confident and...not afraid of me and shit." Nathan scratched his head awkwardly, aware that he was making a total idiot of himself.

Nathan risked another glance at Simon, the _future _Simon, he guessed. He was lean and muscled and he looked strong.

"I had no idea what you were packing under all them clothes!" He said, attempting a smile before it faltered. How much of a freak could he sound at the moment?

He was never speechless, never. But right now he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"I'm not packing anything yet," Simon explained, "not the present version of myself."

Nathan shook his head in bewilderment and shot Simon a pretentious look. "Do you even know how retarded you are?" He asked rhetorically, zipping up his jacket.

"Nathan, wait." Simon called out when Nathan turned to leave. "Don't go yet."

Nathan turned back, Simon didn't sound like he was commanding him, it almost sounded like he was pleading with him.

Nathan wanted to laugh, he wanted to make some cocky retort but he couldn't. This Simon was different, he didn't get offended at Nathan's jokes he just laughed at them.

He looked around the flat, trying to look anywhere but at Simon himself before he sat down awkwardly on the bed, hands stuffed in his pockets, facing away from Simon.

He felt the bed dip as Simon sat down next to him, he turned his head slowly to see Simon staring at him.

His eyes were inquisitive, like he was studying Nathan's movements and his lips were pulled up in a half-smile.

He thought about Simon, the _real _Simon, the other Simon. The way he would look so scared to join in and when he spoke it was barely above a mutter.

"No offence," said Nathan, "but this is too weird."

"How is it weird?" Asked Simon gently.

Nathan exasperatedly waved his hand, gesturing up and down Simon's body.

Simon grinned, "what?"

"You!" Said Nathan, "you're...you're not..." He sighed to himself. "You're not Barry."

And Simon laughed, full-on laughed freely and it was the first time Nathan had heard that noise come from either one of the Simon's. The noise seemed to instantly relax him and he found himself smiling despite himself.

"So, what possessed you to come back here then?" Nathan asked, turning more towards Simon. "I mean, you could travel back to a hundred cool places and you decide to come back here? Back to your community service with all of the people you never liked."

"I always liked you," Simon told him, catching Nathan's attention. "There were times when I was doing my community service that I thought you were my only friend."

It struck Nathan how easily it was for Simon to tell him that, to drop bombshells like it was casual conversation.

Nathan tried to laugh it off but laughing just made his head twinge. Simon saw him wince and immediately reached out towards him but Nathan stood up instinctively, backing away from the proffered hand.

They stood there staring at each other in silence for a long moment.

"Did I die?" Nathan asked eventually.

Simon retracted his hand and shook his head. "No, but you would have done if I'd left you there any longer."

Nathan laughed, confused. "Why?" He asked, "why didn't you just let me die?"

Simon smirked but there was no humour to it. "Because ever since that storm struck I must have watched you die a hundred times," he said darkly, he looked down at the floor. "And it never got any easier."

Nathan blinked a few times and his breath faltered. "What do you mean, man?" He asked nervously.

Nathan watched as Simon stood up and faced him, he reached out and touched Nathan, just below his wound.

Nathan's eyes fluttered for a moment as the warm hand came into contact with his chilled skin.

He and Simon had never actually touched before, not skin on skin. He murmured something that may have sounded like a quiet "no," he should be haven't these sorts of stirrings in his stomach, he was a woman kind of guy...but that didn't even make any sense.

This was ridiculous, this was Barry.

But then, this wasn't Barry.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Asked Nathan, his eyes darting to the hand on his cheek.

Simon smiled. "You sound angry."

"I am angry."

"But you haven't moved my hand away yet."

Nathan slapped his hand away and backed away from him, infuriated.

"You know, I think I preferred you a lot more when you were a shy, social outcast."

Nathan thought he was imagining the momentary hurt that flashed across Simon's face before it disappeared.

"You don't prefer me as anything yet." He informed him and Nathan very nearly growled.

"Will you stop talking so fucking cryptically and tell me what you actually fucking mean?" He practically shouted, feeling the ire rise in his stomach.

Simon took a deep breath before he spoke again. "This may be hard to believe," he said calmly, walking closer to Nathan who didn't back away, "but in the future, you and I are together."

There was a beat of silence and neither of them moved. Simon half-expected Nathan to shout at him and leave but he just stood there, staring at him.

"You mean," he asked quietly, "together-together?"

"Yes." Simon answered quietly, aware that he was treading on thin ice. There were times when Nathan was like a tiger, he could react unexpectedly at any given moment.

Something in Nathan's brain seemed to snap and he shook his head. "You're crazy," he said before turning on his heel and walking into the lift.

Simon watched him go in silence.


	2. Chapter 2

Nathan slept fitfully that night, he was trying to ignore the main thing he'd taken away from his meeting with the future Simon and tried to focus on some of the other important stuff he'd found out.

The guy in the mask was fucking Simon. He'd never actually found out why he was here, he'd gotten distracted by other stuff and he mentally punched himself for it.

He'd tried to imagine that Simon was playing some sick joke on him but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he would.

He watched Kelly and Alisha file into the community centre, talking about something. Curtis walked in next followed closely by Simon.

Nathan momentarily contemplated telling them everything that had happened to him last night but he didn't know how the fuck he was supposed to explain to Simon that there were two of him running around.

"Mornin' all," Nathan announced, walking into the locker room. He turned and saw that all four of them were staring at him, shocked.

He looked around for a moment. "What?" He asked, confused.

"What the fuck happened to your head?" Kelly asked.

_Shit._ Nathan thought to himself, he'd completely forgotten about that. Looking at himself in the locker room mirror, he saw the large gash on the side of his face, he breathed a sigh of relief as he realised it didn't look anywhere near as bad as it did yesterday. Today it looked more like a bad cut and less like he'd just fucking died.

"Oh," he said aloud, trying to sound nonchalant. "I slipped in the bathroom and hit a mirror." He told them, almost proud at how believable his lie sounded.

Luckily, no one said anything else about it and they all got changed and began to talk about all the stuff they normally spoke about. Which was nothing much, really.

They were assigned to do the same boring shit as always, picking up litter outside of the community centre. Nathan was talking to Kelly about something but every now and then his eyes drifted to Simon, standing all alone and putting litter into a rubbish bag.

It was insane to think that this weird kid became that even weirder man. He found himself laughing quietly to himself.

But something else caught his eye about Simon, he was stood all alone.

Despite how much the other Simon had pissed him off last night he did remember that twinge of guilt he got when he'd told him that he felt Nathan had been his only friend.

Besides, this particular Simon hadn't done anything to him.

He sauntered over to Simon who looked up when he came over.

"All right?" He asked, but Simon didn't say anything, he just looked back down at what he was doing.

_Of course, _Nathan thought to himself, _social outcast._

"Listen, Bar...Simon," he said, this caused Simon to look up at him with confusion in his eyes. Nathan didn't really know what he expected himself to say, it was always his downfall.

"Look, I'm sorry if I'm such a prick to you sometimes."

Simon stared at him for such a long time that Nathan thought he wasn't going to say anything back and almost turned to leave.

"I...I...I never thought you were a prick." Simon stuttered out, but the impact of his words were loud and clear. "I always just thought you were defensive," Simon carried on, "like you were afraid to let anyone in."

Anything of the affection that Nathan was close to feeling for Simon dissipated in that moment.

Giving him a scathing look, Nathan stalked off back to Kelly, leaving Simon alone.

It was the second time he'd done that now.

…

When Nathan jerked from his sleep that night it was still pitch black. He rolled over on his thin mattress in the community centre and fumbled around for his Ipod.

When he pressed a button he recoiled from the sudden light that flashed across his face, then, with one eye closed, he looked at the time.

1:27AM

Groaning to himself, Nathan let his head hit the pillow again before he realised what had woken him up .

He lazily got out of bed and made his way blindly to the bathroom, not bothering to put any clothes on.

Taking off the ski mask, Simon slipped in through a skylight and landed lightly on the floor of the community centre.

He looked around at the familiar sights of the hall and smiled to himself before sitting down on the floor.

His ears pricked up as he heard shuffling and he stood immediately, cautious because he knew Nathan was in the building somewhere.

He quietly slipped out of the room and ran down the corridor and collided with someone, keeping his footing, Simon looked down to see who he had bashed into only to see Nathan himself sprawled out on the floor, staring fearfully up at him. He was clad only in a baggy t-shirt and black boxer shorts, his curly hair a mess.

All Simon could think about was how gorgeous Nathan looked right now and how he wished he could tell him, he wished he was in a time where Nathan would have blushed and smirked at him instead of staring up at him with raw annoyance like he was doing now.

Nathan quickly pushed himself up off the floor, glaring at Simon. "What the fuck are you doing here in the middle of the night?" He asked, "and why are you knocking me about the place?"

"Err..." Began Simon nervously, causing Nathan's brow to furrow in confusion.

"I heard noises," Simon admitted, "scuffling, I thought you were in danger."

"I was only going to the bathroom, Jesus."

Simon studied him for a moment, hating the lines of anger on his face. "I'm sorry, Nathan."

Nathan rubbed his eyes. "It's okay, man. What are you doing in the community centre?"

A thought crossed Nathan's brain and now the anger was back. "Are you stalking me? Or are you just here to laugh at me being a homeless."

Simon hated the rough edge to Nathan's voice, but this was all new to him, of course he was going to get angry.

"I would never laugh at you." Simon told him sincerely.

Nathan stared at him openly for a second and for the shortest time it felt like they were actually communicating before Nathan's masked defences came back up.

…

The pair of them were sat on Nathan's thin mattress, both overlooking the community centre.

Nathan had pulled on a pair of tight jeans and Simon was almost saddened, but then he remembered that he hadn't travelled back in time to ogle Nathan.

Nathan wasn't looking at him, he was leaning on the railing in front of his makeshift bed and staring out over the hall, he looked troubled.

"How am I supposed to keep this a secret?" He asked eventually, "I mean, I had to lie to everyone today. Not that I care, but if I have to keep it up I'll lose track."

Simon smiled for a second. "I know it's hard," he said, "but it's something you have to do."

"But-" began Nathan, turning to face him. "If no one can know that you're here, why did you tell me?"

Simon didn't answer for a moment. "You're taking it pretty well."

Nathan couldn't help feeling like he was avoiding the question but he dropped it.

"Oh yeah," he said sarcastically, looking out across the hall again, "I'm taking it really well, I mean, I've only nearly died twice in the last few days." He turned back to Simon, "and one of them was you trying to kill me a few minutes ago."

Simon chuckled and Nathan shook his head.

"What about you?" He asked, "I mean, present you." He explained. "I'm sure he'd understand this shit a lot better than me."

"The present Simon has a long way to go." Simon pointed out.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "you're right actually, he's just so different to you."

Simon knocked him on the shoulder lightly. "You shouldn't treat him so harshly."

"Hey, I've been trying!" Said Nathan defensively. "Even today, he..." he paused for a moment, "he said that he thinks I'm defensive because I'm scared of letting people in."

He looked at Simon. "Which is bullshit, by the way, I don't want you thinking I'm a total charity case."

"You've never been a charity case," Simon assured him, grinning slightly. "I used to always be afraid about getting on the wrong side of you."

Nathan grinned back but he wanted to shudder when he thought about the power-shift in their relationship.

When he would sit like this with Barry he would know he has complete control over the situation but right here, right now with Simon he felt completely defenceless and he hated it.

"So, what _are_ you doing here?" Nathan asked again, "at the community centre, I mean." He clarified.

"Sometimes I like to come back here," Simon admitted, "just visit the community centre and just sit," he had a glint in his eye like a war veteran recalling the good old days would have.

Simon looked sideways at Nathan. "Sometimes I think that picking up litter was the best time of my life."

"Well," Nathan retorted, "I think that's the sort of illness you need to see a specialist about."

Simon laughed and he knew instinctively that he wanted to touch him, he wanted to reach out and just touch Nathan but he couldn't. Not yet.

"So you're telling me that you've been coming to the community centre in the middle of the night for God knows how long and I haven't even heard you?" Nathan asked, mock-incredulously. "Life just passes me by."

"You've always been a deep-sleeper." Said Simon without thinking.

Simon stared in shock as Nathan sprung to his feet. "That's bullshit," he declared quickly.

Simon's eyes went wide as Nathan towered over him.

Standing up, Simon walked closer to Nathan but Nathan backed away.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Asked Simon confusedly.

"You!" Nathan exclaimed, "you're wrong. This is wrong! I don't like people pissing around with my head, especially if it's got something to do with my future. There is no way that me and you ever end up together so stop saying it! I'm not gay, and even if I was, I would be able to get someone way better than you! I mean, me and you, how the hell did that even happen?"

Simon stared at Nathan patiently. "You fall in love with me."

Nathan stopped in his tracks and stared as Simon got closer to him, he felt Simon place the same hand on his cheek, he could even feel Simon's hot breath ghosting over his mouth.

He smelt fucking amazing and all Nathan could think about were those feelings in his stomach, the same fluttery feelings he got last night when Simon got this close before and then...

No. This wasn't happening. He's Nathan fucking Young for fucks sake, he doesn't go around snogging blokes and he _certainly_ doesn't go around snogging Barry.

Nathan pulled back, watching Simon stare at him confusedly.

"This is bullshit," he repeated harshly, "I don't have..."

"Nathan." Said Simon quietly, so quietly it was almost inaudible.

Nathan stood stock still for a moment until he angrily batted Simon's hand away from him. "Just fuck off, okay?" He practically shouted before heading down the stairs and out of the community centre.

Simon shook his head, trying desperately not to be upset.

_Nathan will understand soon._ He told himself before sighing and putting the mask back on.

…

It was the early hours of the morning and the sun was just peaking out above the horizon and Nathan was sat against the cold wall of the entrance to the community centre.

It was chilly without his jacket on so he lit a cigarette to try and keep himself as warm as possible, as he tried to suck in all the heat he could he considered going back inside but Simon could be in there and he didn't want to face that again.

He laughed a little desperately to himself as he thought about how fucked up this whole situation was. He was just trying to lead a normal life, well as normal as it can get when you're immortal, when all this shit happened.

It was hard to think that squeaky little Simon, the kid that Nathan was slowly growing to like had turned into _that._

Into this confident, outgoing fucking superhero that not only made Nathan promise not to tell anyone about him but spewed all this shit about how they were some Romeo and Juliet type.

Nathan took another drag of his cigarette, hugging himself as he decided that he wasn't afraid of him, not like that anyway. Among other things, he didn't see any reason why this Simon would hurt him considering he spent half of his time saving his arse, and of course the other big thing was that it's hard to really be afraid of anyone when you're immortal.

But Nathan was afraid of the way Simon made him feel. He'd never felt anything like this before, not even for a girl.

It's not like Simon made him weak at the knees like some vampire bullshit, but he made him all hot and bothered and made him feel like he didn't just want to fuck him he wanted to hold him and touch him, too.

Nathan laughed manically and he didn't really care if anyone heard him. Fuck Barry? Jesus, he was losing his shit.

He let his head drop and raked his fingers through his knotted curls. This wasn't fair, Simon wasn't allowed to do this.

Breathing heavily, Nathan pushed all that to the back of his mind and decided to focus on some of the slightly more important stuff like why had Simon even travelled back in time in the first place?

Nathan must have asked him the same question about 5 times but he always avoided it. And of course, with that big question came a bunch of little questions like trees with branches, like why was he spying on them and saving them and shit? How did he know exactly what was going to happen?

If Simon could make Nathan feel completely stupid and awkward then he could at least answer a few fucking questions.

Nathan lost track of how long he had been outside for, it became less about avoiding Simon and more about him getting lost in his thoughts. That didn't happen that often.

Soon after that, and a few more cigarettes later, Nathan lost track of what he was thinking about all together and was staring at three or four ants scuttling round on the concrete.

It must be simple being an ant.

Nathan looked up and saw Kelly approaching him, it must have been morning already.

Kelly wondered what was wrong with Nathan, he was leaning against the wall of the community centre, barely wearing anything and staring off into the distance.

"Are you all right?" Kelly asked, she knew Nathan was weird and played jokes most of the time but these last few days he'd seemed genuinely out of it, like something was really bothering him.

Nathan looked up at Kelly and suddenly realised how much he really wanted to talk to her about all this, she was the one person he could talk to about his actual feelings and she wouldn't laugh at him, but he couldn't.

He'd promised Simon he wouldn't tell anyone about him, Nathan didn't know why he was protecting him, though.

Nathan nodded at her, flicking his cigarette to the ground. "Yeah, I'm good. Let's go inside, it's fucking freezing out here."

Walking into the community centre, Kelly shoved Nathan playfully. "Couldn't you sleep last night?" She asked.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, I woke up needing a piss then didn't get back to sleep."

"Oh mate, I fucking hate it when that happens..."

Nathan liked this sort of method of explaining things, it wasn't perfect but he wasn't lying, either.

He'd never liked lying to anyone, he was always so confident that he had no trouble telling anyone the truth about anything, no matter how embarrassing. Now he had to keep this titanic-sized secret to himself...he felt oddly alone.

A few minutes after they reached the community centre, everyone else started to file in.

As Nathan slipped his jumpsuit on over his clothes he watched Simon closely, he saw him pat his hair down nervously like he always did and in that moment decided he wanted some fucking answers.


	3. Chapter 3

"You up to anything tonight?" Asked Kelly as they all filed out of the community centre at the end of the day.

"Seeing a mate." Nathan told her. "Well, I use the term "mate" loosely." He grinned.

"Well, see you tomorrow, yeah?" She asked.

"Yeah," Nathan replied before he turned on his heel and walked down the street in the other direction.

As they watched him go, Curtis leant into Kelly. "Is he acting like less of a prick lately or is that just me?"

Alisha sighed loudly. "Uh, who cares?"

Simon coughed slightly. "The other day, Nathan apologised for being so mean to me sometimes." He added.

"Maybe he's dying?" Asked Alisha after a moment.

"He can't die, he's immortal." Curtis reminded her. Alisha rolled her eyes and walked away, Curtis followed her closely.

After they left, Simon looked seriously at Kelly. "Maybe he's having a mid-life crisis."

Kelly shrugged. "Let's just leave him to it, yeah?"

When Simon still looked concerned she shoved him playfully, "come on, come and have a drink with us."

Sparing one last glance to the direction Nathan went, Simon reluctantly agreed.

…

Nathan walked slowly to Simon's flat-thing, it annoyed him that he remembered the way so easily.

Nathan wondered what it was about this new Simon that annoyed him so much, he couldn't pinpoint it but whenever he thought about him he just got pissed.

As Nathan got closer he realised what he was about to do, he was about to barge in and demand Simon tell him what he's doing there, like some rubbish cop show.

He thought about turning back round but then mentally laughed at himself, he wasn't a pussy, he was just going to go there and get this dealt with.

When the lift reached it's destination, Nathan slowly opened the doors and walked into the flat. The ceiling lights were on full-pelt and it took his eyes a minute to adjust.

Simon was sat by his bed, shirtless, with a weight in one hand. He'd halted his weight-lifting though and was looking at Nathan, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Hey," he greeted.

Nathan hovered in the doorway and didn't offer any kind of reply.

"Come in," said Simon, placing his weight on the floor.

Nathan walked awkwardly into the flat, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets.

"How do you not have a constant headache from the lighting in here?" He asked.

Simon let out a breathy laugh and approached him, holding out his hands.

Nathan, thinking Simon was about to touch him, instantly backed off.

Fighting off a smile, Simon reached his hands out again. "I want to take your jacket," he assured Nathan, trying not to make him any more uncomfortable than he already was.

Nathan quickly shrugged out of his jacket and all but threw it at Simon. His jacket and Simon were having a lot of adventures.

Folding it away, Simon sat down on the large grey bed and patted the space next to him, obviously an invitation for Nathan to sit beside him.

Nathan rolled his eyes, convinced he'd accidentally walked in on a set for a really bad porno.

But, not wanting him, Simon and sex in the same thought process, he sat down quickly beside him.

He didn't like not wearing his jacket when he was in uncomfortable situations because he didn't have anything to do with his hands.

"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Simon asked.

Nathan knew he'd be like this, under everything, a perfect host. He shook his head quickly.

Simon's brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't think I've ever seen you this quiet before." He admitted.

Nathan closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath before he looked at Simon, determined he wasn't going to wriggle out of the question again.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, "why did you come back, why now?"

Not even a beat of silence passed before Simon answered. "I came back to save you." He told him.

Nathan had to stop the customary laugh from escaping. He was really trying to be nicer to Simon, the pair of them.

"You don't have to save me, I'm immortal." He pointed out, voice laced with his former cockiness.

"There are things you haven't faced yet," Simon told him completely seriously. "Things you wouldn't even think of, you're immortality can't always protect you."

Nathan sighed loudly. "You'no, no matter how much you change you always spew the same old shit."

"I haven't changed that much." Simon informed him.

"Err, yes you have." Nathan shot back like Simon was a five-year old. "You're confident and happy and shit, trust me, you're not like that now."

Staring at him, Simon smiled. "It's you who makes me this way." He said quietly.

Nathan knew he should have felt angry, he should have reacted the same way he had reacted every other time and stormed off and then got more angry on his own later.

But he wasn't, he felt relaxed and comfortable and like he wanted to listen.

He was tired of just not listening to everything this Simon told him when he seemed to be right about everything else.

Nathan contemplated that maybe Simon was telling him the truth, maybe, in some fucked up way, they did end up together.

Simon smiled as he saw the thought process going on behind Nathan's eyes. "You finally understand." He said softly.

Nathan ran a hand through his hair and looked at Simon, smiling weakly. He didn't know what had changed, but he wasn't fighting anyone and Simon wasn't going to laugh at him.

"Look, I know I always act like I'm indestructible," Nathan admitted, "I mean, I _am _indestructible," he clarified, "but what I mean is, whenever I needed someone to actually talk to, I could always talk to you."

He immediately felt so much better having said that, he laughed a little. "I mean, even if you never talked back."

Simon laughed with him. "I'm talking now."

Nathan didn't know what the fuck he was doing, but he leant in and Simon kissed him.

He moaned involuntarily as he felt the days of pent-up frustration spill out through his mouth.

He realised in that second that, sat on the end of this bed, being kissed by Simon was exactly what he wanted.

He ran his fingers through Simon's short hair and felt Simon's hands find his back, lowering him onto the bed.

Nathan's head hit the pillow and he moaned in annoyance as Simon's hot mouth left his, he felt cold and empty.

Looking down on himself, he watched as Simon kissed down his neck.

Nathan threw his arm over his eyes as Simon nipped at his sensitised flesh.

Pushing his shirt up, Simon began to lay soft, hot kisses all over his abdomen and Nathan's muscles arched up.

By the time Simon reached his belt, he looked up to see Nathan covering his eyes and quivering, leaving him breathless and wanton.

Grinning to himself, Simon unzipped Nathan's jeans and tugged them down his legs.

Nathan knew exactly what was going on, he felt the cold air hit his legs as Simon stripped him of his trousers but he didn't care.

He looked down and saw Simon was staring hungrily at his cock, poking out from his crotch, already hard from the stimulation he'd already received.

Simon looked up at Nathan and their eyes locked. Simon could see a thousand emotions trailing through Nathan's eyes and he knew immediately that this was not about the sex, it never was.

Simon lowered his mouth onto Nathan's cock and Nathan cried out and arched his back.

Simon smiled around him as he used his tongue to swipe along the underside, knowing it drove Nathan crazy.

"Fuck!" Nathan arched off the bed even more, he angled his head to look down and saw Simon with his mouth around his cock, his spit dribbling down his shaft and had to bite down on his fist to stop himself coming from that alone.

It was the single hottest thing he had ever seen in his life.

"Jesus, Simon..." he breathed out.

Simon worked his way up to the top of Nathan's cock and licked along his slit and Nathan fucking whimpered as a cascade of sensation poured through his body.

He'd never felt anything like this before, but all he knew was that he didn't give a single shit about anything else and just wanted to stay in this moment forever.

"Nathan..." Nathan looked down to see Simon staring up at him, lips swollen and covered in pre-come. "You're so ready to come," Simon told him, "come on, let go."

The sound of Simon's voice was just so fucking dirty that when he wrapped his hand around the base of Nathan's cock he was spurting thick, white ropes that landed on Simon's face.

Nathan's head fell back and hit the pillow, he breathed heavily as he felt like his whole body was on fire.

"Jesus," he said quietly to himself. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked down to see Simon wiping the come off of his face.

Nathan's eyes widened. "Oh my God," he began, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Simon shook his head, he crawled up Nathan's body and put a finger to his lips to silence him. Only when the finger made contact did Nathan realise it was covered in his own come. He opened his mouth and allowed Simon to put it inside, he sucked on the finger and it tasted like a combination of him and Simon all in one.

"You have no idea how fucking hot that is," Simon growled, retracting the finger.

Reaching up to wipe his mouth, Simon could see that Nathan's hand was trembling. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he told him honestly, "I just know that I want to do it and I like it and..."

"Shhh." Said Simon, taking Nathan's face in his hands. "It's okay."

"I want to have sex with you." Nathan quickly clarified, he fell silent for a moment. "But I don't know how."

Simon smiled despite himself. "I'll show you how."

…

"Are you scared?" Simon asked quietly, his lubed up fingers pressed against Nathan's hole.

Nathan brought his head up from the pillow so he had a full—view of Simon.

He'd never had anything inside him before, he had no idea what to expect. Of course he was fucking scared.

He nodded.

"It's okay," Simon said comfortingly, "I'll be gentle, and if you want to stop, we will."

Nathan leant back against the pillows and shuffled, trying to get ready.

"Okay," he said after a minute, "I'm ready."

Slowly, ever so slowly, Simon teased Nathan's puckered hole open for the first time.

He and Nathan had had sex many times before but not like this, Simon was Nathan's first, just as Nathan was Simon's.

Nathan's muscles spasmed and closed around Simon's finger.

"Do you feel all right?" Simon asked, Nathan nodded but wriggled around a bit.

"Yeah," he assured him, "feels weird."

Simon nodded. "It will do the first time. Can I put another in?"

Staring at him for a moment, Nathan nodded.

Simon slowly eased another finger inside Nathan to join the first and the sight had him nearly salivating.

Nathan was struggling, he didn't know whether to cry out or just simply cry, he'd never felt this invaded and helpless in his life.

Biting down hard, he let out a small whimper as he felt the skin on his bottom lip tear. Why couldn't he regenerate wounds as well?

"Nathan..." He looked down to see Simon staring at him, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Risking a shaky laugh, Nathan nodded. "Yeah."

Simon could see the bubble of blood pooling on Nathan's bottom lip, he realised how hard this must have been for him.

Slowly, Simon began to tease his fingers in and out from inside Nathan. He saw the muscles in Nathan's open thighs strain and quiver. Using his free hand, Simon ran his fingers gently up and down the quivering muscles.

Nathan felt himself relax as Simon brushed his hand up and down his legs, it felt intrusive but he felt safe at the same time.

Simon watched as Nathan's muscles began to ease and, smiling to himself, he crooked his fingers inside of Nathan.

Nathan let out a surprised "oh!" and his hips arched off of the bed. Breathing heavily, his muscles tensed up again.

"Oh my God," he exclaimed quietly.

Grinning, Simon repeated the same movement, brushing across Nathan's prostate two or three times, loving the little keening noises Nathan made and the way his whole body seemed to arch closer to him.

When he did it once more, Nathan's hand found his arm and clasped him around the wrist.

Stilling his movements, he looked up to see Nathan's wide eyes staring at the ceiling, his chest was heaving.

"If you keep that up," he began breathlessly, looking up at Simon. "I'm going to come."

"Do you think you're ready?" Asked Simon gently. Nathan's eyes darted around for a second and Simon leant down and kissed him softly. "You don't have to be scared, it's just me."

After a moment of staring at him, Nathan nodded.

"Yeah, okay. But come here, though."

Smiling, Simon climbed up Nathan's body so they were face to face. Nathan stared up into his eyes and wrapped one hand into his hair, pulling him down into a kiss.

Simon kissed him deeply as he pulled his fingers from him, feeling Nathan shiver below him.

Nathan's mouth was completely familiar to Simon and yet completely new to him all at the same time, he wanted to explore each individual crevice all day long.

Pulling back for a moment, Simon sucked lightly on the tip of Nathan's tongue, fully aware that it drove him mad.

Moaning loudly, Nathan bucked up into Simon, the stimulation to Simon's cock made him groan.

"Will you just fuck me already?" Nathan asked impatiently against his lips.

Simon sat back into his heels and leant across the bed, Nathan admired the muscles in his body as he turned, Nathan had never felt more turned on than he was right now yet he never remembered being attracted to guys before.

Nathan watched silently as Simon rolled a condom onto his hard cock, it was larger than Nathan had imagined and he swallowed.

"Come here." He said quietly, and Simon obeyed, again crawling up his body and capturing his mouth in a kiss.

Nathan opened his mouth and moaned silently as he felt Simon's cock being pushed inside of him. God, it burned.

"Fuck..." He hissed, the pain in his arse shooting up through his spine.

"It's okay," Simon assured him. "It'll pass, I promise."

Nathan nodded, sweat trickling down his forehead. Simon placed his hands on either side of Nathan's head and pulled out of him until only the tip teased Nathan's hole, he could feel it clenching and quivering around him.

He pushed back in and Nathan arched his spine, calling out.

Simon ran a hand through Nathan's damp hair. "You okay?" He asked.

Nathan nodded, eyes closed. Simon pulled back out again and pushed back in, Nathan's reaction was much the same so he did it again, Nathan felt the pain lessen each time.

Then, when Simon pushed in again Nathan felt pleasure shoot up his spine, he cried out and wrapped his legs around Simon's waist, pulling him in again.

"Oh God..." Nathan moaned, "Oh God, don't stop."

Simon would have grinned if Nathan's muscles weren't clenching around him as he fucked into him again and again.

"Jesus," Simon exclaimed against Nathan's lips. "Are you close?"

Nathan opened his eyes and they seemed to sparkle, Nathan never looked more beautiful than he did in that moment.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna come..."

Simon wrapped his hand around Nathan's neglected dick, spreading the pre-come over it's head. Apparently, that's all it took, within moments Nathan was coming again, his back fully arched off of the bed.

The spasm of his muscles around Simon's cock sent him over the edge and he moaned softly as he came deeply into the condom, falling against Nathan, he felt the legs clenched around his waist go slack and Nathan felt like a puddle of jelly below him.

Manoeuvring off of him, Simon rolled to the side of the bed, sliding the sticky condom off of himself, tying it off and catapulting it into a nearby bin, getting it in on the first go.

"Nice shot," Nathan murmured below him. Simon turned to see Nathan still lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He looked tired and freshly fucked.

"How do you feel?" Simon asked.

Nathan didn't reply for a moment. "Well, I certainly didn't see that one coming." He said after a while.

Simon laughed and wrapped his hands around Nathan, pulling him in for a soft kiss. "Don't take this the wrong way," Nathan said quietly, "but you're a lot better than I thought you were going to be."

Simon rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "I had a good teacher." He told him, stroking up and down Nathan's cheek. "You."

Nathan blinked a few times. "You mean the present you?" He asked, looking momentarily confused. "Me and him? That's what happens?"

Simon nodded. "Yes, it's your love that turns him into me."

Nathan sat up slowly, running his hand through his hair. He let out a noise of distaste as he realised how wet his hair was.

"Is something wrong?" Simon asked, momentarily worried that Nathan was going to leave.

"No one ever said anything about love." Nathan told him.

Simon reached a hand up and tugged Nathan down next to him. "Don't worry about any of that yet," he said softly, "just be in the moment."

Nathan tried to cast all of those thoughts aside, he was pretty sleepy. He would have loved to just sleep like that, feeling Simon's body heat against him and feeling him trailing his fingers comfortingly up and down his warm skin, but no matter how much he wriggled he couldn't settle down.

"Are you all right?" Simon asked.

Nathan wiggled some more. "I can't get the sleep." He finally admitted.

"Just try and relax," Simon told him, "remember, you haven't got to prove anything to anyone."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's easy for you to say." He wriggled around until he was facing Simon. "This is all new to me."

"You know," began Simon, "in the future, in your future, when we're together, and when we were lying in bed, I used to draw little circles on your skin, just like this-" as he said it, he began outlining little circles on Nathan's exposed collarbone, the movement instantly relaxed him.

"-And every time I did it..." Simon carried on, "it always sent you straight to sleep."

Simon's voice was oddly lulling when Nathan actually paid attention to it, and he didn't think he'd ever felt more relaxed in his life.

After a few more minutes of Simon's ministrations and Nathan's breathing evened out and his head lulled back onto Simon's shoulder.

Simon kissed him gently on the forehead and smiled, settling down to sleep right next to him.

At around 4am Simon was awoken by a quietly beeping alarm, slowly turning around to make sure Nathan hadn't been woken up, he slowly disentangled himself from Nathan's body and got out of the bed. He walked over to the wall and checked one of the digital clocks, it was for 30 minutes and counting.

Getting dressed into his black outfit quietly so as to not to wake Nathan, he walked over to where he lay sleeping and kissed him lightly on the forehead, he watched Nathan twitch in his sleep.

"I love you so much," he whispered before leaving the flat.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I have to say, I'm genuinely surprised at the amount of positive reviews this has received, thank you all so much x

When Simon arrived back in the early morning he took off his ski-mask and placed on the table, unzipping his outfit he walked towards the bed to see if Nathan was still asleep but the bed was empty, and looking around, he realised that all of Nathan's clothes were gone.

He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Nathan in the kitchen, he looked like he had hastily thrown all of his clothes on, his jeans weren't buttoned properly and his t-shirt was askew and he was trying to hurriedly put his jacket on when he saw Simon walking towards him.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Asked Simon confusedly.

But Nathan just laughed humourlessly. "I should have known," he began, "all that talk was bullshit, you just shag and leave."

Simon closed his eyes for a moment, he suddenly realised what this must look like to him. "Nathan, please," Simon tried desperately, "I swear, I didn't leave you, I just had somewhere I needed to be..."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Of course," he said sarcastically. "I mean, you just fucked me to within an inch of my life but of course you had somewhere more important to be."

"Nathan, it's not like that..." But Simon's remarks fell on deaf ears as Nathan finally managed to struggle into his jacket and pushed past him roughly, heading for the door.

Simon reached a hand out and grasped Nathan around the wrist, turning back to Simon, Nathan stared at him in confusion and tried to jerk his hand out of Simon's grip but Simon was too strong.

"Let go of me," Nathan hissed, baring his teeth.

But Simon didn't relent. "No," he said, "all you're doing is trying to find any reason you can to push me away!" He told Nathan heatedly. "It's all because you're scared of your own feelings."

Nathan tried again to pull his arm away but his efforts were useless, he was actually starting to feel kind of scared, but he'd never show Simon his weaknesses, not now.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Nathan snarled. "I could never be!"

"I know you're not afraid of me!" Retorted Simon angrily, "you're afraid that you might actually fall in love with me, it scares you to death and you just want to get out and leave it alone before anything happens and you're in too deep to leave." Simon's voice had evened by now, causing Nathan to stop his struggling. Simon was somewhat captivating when Nathan paid attention to him. "What's happening here-" he continued, "-is that you are the one who is shagging and leaving."

Nathan's hand went limp in Simon's grip and in that second he suddenly looked so young, so innocent. Like every single wall he had ever built up around himself had come crashing down around him.

Simon let go of Nathan's wrist and Nathan's hand fell limply to his side, he paid no attention to it.

Nathan swallowed a couple of times, the distress clear in his eyes. Simon could see that Nathan was this close to bolting again but something was stopping him, holding him back.

"If I'm so messed up then why are you even bothering with me?"

The words hit Simon like a bulldozer, he stared at Nathan for a moment, sometimes he was a total idiot. "Because I love you," Simon told him, "I love you and...I miss you even though you're stood right in front of me. You have no idea how lonely I am without you."

That last bit was barely above a whisper and Nathan could feel the blood in his ears.

"What do you want?" He asked quietly, his throat dry.

"I want you to understand how much I love you," Simon told him earnestly, "and I want you to stop treating those feelings in your stomach as alien and allow yourself to be loved in return."

Nathan didn't move, Simon wasn't even sure if he was still breathing. Slowly, ever so slowly, Simon leant in and kissed Nathan.

Whatever Nathan was feeling at that moment was unclear but his body was responding, he kissed Simon back tentatively.

Simon couldn't help it, now wasn't the time for tentative kisses. He kissed Nathan harder, making him moan into Simon's mouth. Nathan threw his arms around Simon's neck and reciprocated.

Simon curled his hands around Nathan's arse and lifted him, Nathan wrapped his legs around Simon's waist without ever breaking the kiss.

Depositing Nathan onto the edge of the counter, Simon stepped back to wrestle out of his clothes, Nathan looked so fucking hot. His lips were pink and swollen and his hair was ruffled.

After Simon had thrown his clothes unceremoniously to the floor, he tugged Nathan's jeans down his legs and Nathan shed his own jacket and t shirt, once he was completely naked, he wrapped his long legs around Simon's waist and pulled him into him again, their erections brushed and Nathan moaned loudly and bit into Simon's neck, Simon almost came from that alone.

Simon brushed Nathan's cheek slowly. Nathan smiled slightly, nodding at him.

Simon reached across the kitchen counter and opened a draw, the movement made Nathan keen into him.

Simon returned to face him holding a strip of condoms. Nathan arched an eyebrow.

"Do you keep them everywhere?"

Simon shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, you always want to have sex anywhere and everywhere."

Nathan blushed a little but hid it well. "Yeah, well, I'm a stallion."

Simon smiled at him for a moment but then they were kissing again, hard. Simon ripped open the condom and reached between them to roll it onto himself.

The condom was pre-lubed but still...

"Are you sure you don't want some more preparation?" Simon asked.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Will you just shag me already?" He asked.

Simon would have laughed if he weren't so completely turned on, holding Nathan's hips still he thrust forward into the other man.

Nathan squirmed and arched beneath him, so unused to being penetrated this way. If Nathan made any sort of movement it sent sensations coursing through the pair of them.

His fingernails digging into Nathan's flesh, Simon began to move his hips, plunging in and out of Nathan's puckered hole.

Nathan's toes curled as he used his legs to pull Simon in deeper, gasping loudly when he felt that burst of electricity shoot through his entire body.

"Jesus," Nathan moaned out after a minute, slurring, "I'm gonna come..."

Simon took one hand from Nathan's hip and dug it into the man's curly hair, pulling his head back and biting his neck, simultaneously plunging into him harder.

Nathan gave a loud moan of pleasure and Simon felt Nathan's hot come hit his stomach, he continued to fuck Nathan until the pressure around his cock became too much and he came forcefully, shoving Nathan back further onto the counter.

He stilled as he heard Nathan breathing heavily, then, after a moment, he felt Nathan's head come to rest on his shoulder.

Simon put his arms around Nathan's heated skin and just held him, after a few moments, Simon pulled back and looked at Nathan, into his bright eyes.

Nathan's legs finally went lax around Simon's waist.

Simon ran a finger over Nathan's lips and watched as he shivered. "How can this not be real?" He asked in a whisper.

He watched as tears welled up in Nathan's eyes, but they weren't tears of sorrow, just tears of pure emotion.

Using his thumb, he wiped the tears away before they fell too far down Nathan's red cheeks.

Nathan quickly scrubbed the tears away from his own face, shaking his head.

"You're really going to have to let me fuck you sometime." He said quietly, attempting humour.

Simon laughed and brought Nathan's face to his, Nathan kissed him first, capturing his swollen lips in his.

As Nathan gingerly picked up his jacket from the floor several minutes later, he cast his gaze over to Simon who was slipping a dark t shirt over his head, covering those down right gorgeous muscles of his.

When Simon was fully dressed, he caught Nathan staring at him.

"What?" He asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

"So-" began Nathan, trying his best not to sound like an idiot. "Are we like, seeing each other now?"

Simon nodded. "Yes."

Nathan didn't know what to do. Of course he wanted to be with Simon, now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember what he had wanted before. But saying it out loud like that...

In here, in this little underground flat, the rest of the world wasn't real. Saying that they were together now shocked Nathan into remembering that this was all actually happening and wasn't some weird dream.

_Perfect dream, though._

"You can't tell them," Simon told him, for maybe the millionth time, "you still have to keep all of this a secret."

Nathan nodded slightly in agreement. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to hang around with the other you all day and not want to rip your clothes off."

Simon walked so close to Nathan that their noses were almost touching, curling a hand around Nathan's waist he all but yanked the man towards him, their lips meeting in a kiss.

"Just remember that I'm waiting for you when you finish your community service." Simon said against Nathan's lips.

Nathan smiled.

…

Nathan walked into the community centre, hands in his pockets. When he got there, everyone was already lazily sat in the hall where his bedroom was.

"Where were you?" Kelly asked, pointing up towards his makeshift bed.

_Having the most incredible sex of my life. _"Just out." Said Nathan, "mornin'!"

"Yeah, what's your point?" Asked Curtis immediately.

Nathan's brow furrowed in confusion. "What point? I was just saying hello."

"Yeah, but it's never just hello with you, is it?" Curtis quipped. "You've always got something to say."

Nathan shrugged. "Oh well," he patted his pockets down for a moment. "Fresh out."

Kelly stared at him, bewilderment on her face, starting to wonder if what Simon had said was true, maybe Nathan was having a mid life crisis?

"You feeling all right?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Nathan answered indignantly. "Can't a man just be happy for a change?" And with that, he walked off, leaving the rest of the gang staring at each other in confusion.

Mid morning, when their lunch break finally came around, they all shunned out of their community service gear and made their way to one of the benches in front of the community centre.

It was coming onto Autumn and the chill was evident in the air but it was still warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sights, however much of an estate you can enjoy, anyway.

"D'ya want one?" Kelly asked Nathan, shoving a packed of cheese and onion under his nose.

Nathan dug his hand in the packet and pulled out a handful of crisps, he offered her his own prawn cocktail and she gave them the same treatment.

"Watch out," Curtis laughed, "you don't know where his hands been."

"I could saw the same about you." Nathan sneered, gesturing towards his crotch, Curtis rolled his eyes.

Nathan glanced around and saw Simon sat on the end of the bench, silently eating a perfectly cut sandwich.

"You all right?" Nathan asked, mouth full of crisps.

After realising he was the one Nathan was addressing, Simon looked up. "Sorry?" He said meekly.

Nathan swallowed his crisps. "I was asking if you were all right," Nathan repeated, trying to be nicer to the kid, to make him feel more comfortable.

"Oh, I'm all right." Simon answered, a small smile ghosting over his lips.

Nathan answered with a big smile of his own but was cut off by a large shout next to him, both Nathan and Simon looked around to see Kelly being held by a man, a small knife held up to her throat.

"Shit..." Nathan exclaimed quietly.

"Just let her go!" Alisha shouted, hands out in front of her, they were all used to muggings happening around here, but never one this close.

Seeing the fear in Kelly's eyes, Nathan did the first thing that came to mind. He ran for her, if he knocked the knife away from her throat, obviously the guy would try to stab him, problem solved.

But before he reached her, a streak of black appeared out of nowhere and expertly tackled the mugger away from Kelly, sending her back to the group. Kelly landed in a heap, held up respectively by Nathan and Alisha, but she was too busy staring at the guy in the mask who punched the mugger swiftly in the face and sent him running off in the other direction.

The guy in the mask turned to them all, but Nathan couldn't help but feel like he was looking back at him, he sent a small salute in Nathan's direction before vaulting up the side of a building and out of sight.

Nathan nearly smiled but then he felt Kelly shaking in his arms.

"Hey," he said, "You all right?"

Kelly nodded vaguely until Alisha came forward and took her out of Nathan's arms, Nathan watched for a moment as they all began taking Kelly back to the community centre, feeling surprisingly alone.

…

Nathan broke the lock on the alcohol cabinet in the community centre, again berating himself for not having his own set of keys cut, and poured out a large measure of vodka into a glass.

Walking out into the main hall, Nathan saw Kelly slumped in a wheel chair with everyone else crowded around her.

Nathan handed her the drink. "Here, it'll calm you down."

Kelly gratefully took the glass and downed the vodka in one go before shaking her head. "That fucking guy in the mask." She said quietly.

Nathan's brow furrowed. "What? What did he do?" He asked quizzically.

"You changed your tune," Curtis pointed out, "you were just as pissed off with him as we are the other day."

"Well, you know..." Nathan began, gesturing to Kelly, "he saved Kelly's life, and he's probably saved all of our lives at some point." With that, he turned to Simon, the pair maintained eye contact for a moment until Simon turned away, blushing, probably wondering what the hell Nathan was doing.

Curtis shook his head. "Prick." Obviously Simon wasn't the only one who thought he was taking the piss.

"Hey!" Began Nathan indignantly, "I'm not even taking the piss, I'm being serious!"

"It's a first for you." Alisha pointed out.

"You don't do it a lot." Simon clarified.

Nathan scowled at them. "Yeah, well maybe it's because I'm surrounded by a group of cunts all the time."

And with that, Nathan stalked off out of the community centre, leaving Kelly to stare, bewildered, after him.

…

Nathan stalked around Simon's kitchen, banging various food items onto the table in annoyance before making a sandwich.

Sitting down, he stuffed the sandwich into his mouth and chewed angrily. He always did this, whenever he got angry, he ate. He didn't particularly know why, but all he'd wanted to do after he left the community centre was to come and see Simon but he wasn't here, obviously being a bullshit superhero somewhere else, so Nathan had sat and ate.

He didn't know why he was so pissed off, he was always having confrontations with Curtis, but he was actually trying to be a dick those times, it wasn't fair when he was actually trying to be nice.

He wandered to the fridge in search of beer when he heard the rattle of the lift, Nathan looked around the open planned kitchen to see Simon walking towards him and instantly relaxed.

This wasn't the awkward Simon of the community centre, this was his Simon, the real one, and he was smiling at him.

"Beer's in the cooler." Simon pointed out before walking to the bed and pulling off his ski gear.

Nathan rolled his eyes, only Simon would have a cooler. He fetched himself a drink and followed Simon to the bed.

As Simon pulled on an off-white wide beater Nathan crashed down onto the end of the bed.

"Is Kelly okay?" Simon asked.

"She's fine."

Simon could here the ice in Nathan's voice and frowned slightly. "What's wrong?"

Nathan huffed. "It's ridiculous, no matter what I do, even when I'm trying to be nice, people still treat me like a prick."

Simon slowly sat down next to Nathan, smiling. "Nathan," he began, "I'm not going to lie to you, you can be hard to get along with."

"Yeah, you think I don't know that?" Nathan asked rhetorically, taking another swig of beer.

The pair were silent for a long moment.

"I wonder why I was so nice to you so me and you ended up together." Nathan wondered out loud.

A smile ghosted across Simon's face. "I think it was me, my future self," he clarified, "is what makes you and my past self get together, like a sort of paradox."

"What?" Asked Nathan slowly, concerned. "What do you mean, me and your past self?" He looked at Simon for a long moment. "Does something happen to me, does something happen to _you?"_

Simon shook his head. "Nothing happens to you," he told him, pulling Nathan into a sideways hug. "And everyone will come around once they get to know you like I do."

After a moment, Nathan pulled back and looked at Simon, a little smirk playing on his lips.

"Soooo..." He began, drawing out the word. "Do you want to shag me, then?"

Simon laughed out loud. "Really? I thought you wanted to do the shagging next time?"

But Nathan didn't answer, there was something in his eyes that was almost desperate, like he needed Simon to make him feel special. He'd tried with the others and got it thrown back in his face and his self-esteem was damaged, though he'd never admit it to anyone, but as close as Simon was to Nathan...he always knew.

However, despite how long Simon had known Nathan, it still managed to surprise him how much his walls came down when it was just the two of them, and just how innocent he was behind the jibes and insults.

Simon leant into Nathan and kissed him softly, before taking Nathan's hand in his own and pulling him down onto the bed.

...

Two days had passed and Nathan and Simon were living in a sort of couples bliss, it was like that sickly first relationship you had where you had never felt this good in your entire life.

"What have you got to do today?" Simon asked from the kitchen, mercifully wearing a shirt otherwise Nathan would have just jumped him again and would have never got to his community service.

Nathan shrugged, shoving the last bite of his toast in his mouth. " 'Ome boring 'Hit."

Simon rolled his eyes. "Do you know how attractive you are when you talk with your mouth full?" He asked sarcastically.

Nathan flashed him a cheeky grin before bouncing around the kitchen counter and planting a kiss on Simon's lips before he left.

As he was walking to the community centre, Nathan shook his head at himself as he realised that he was acting like a love sick teenager who'd never been in a relationship, but in truth, he'd never had a relationship like this before.

One that made him mad and happy all at the same time, but also one that was totally secret but at the same time seemed to be changing the person he actually was.

In the locker room, Nathan shrugged on his community "blowback" jumpsuit, pulling out his phone to check the time. Kelly bumped him on the way in and he smiled at her.

A totally normal start to a totally normal day.

Then Simon walked in, and it wasn't a normal day any more. Every time Nathan saw the present Simon, he always remembered all the time travel, secret crap when all he wanted was an ordinary relationship with his Simon.

He ignored Simon as the group walked out of the community centre, Nathan talking to Kelly, Alisha talking to Curtis and Simon walking all on his own.

The preferred brand of bullshit for today was painting some alley walls white, Nathan begrudgingly shoved his paint brush into the paint tin and sloshed the paint onto the wall without any particular finesse, wishing he could be anywhere else but here.

Not being particularly engrossed in his work, he noticed Kelly staring at him from across the alley way, the pair of them were quite a way away from the rest of the group, that always seemed to happen.

He turned to her but she didn't look away, he hoped she wasn't reading his thoughts.

"You all right?" She asked.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"You just seem happy lately," she answered, turning back to her work. "Like you're in love or something."

Nathan turned back to his own section of the wall, holding the paint brush loosely in his hand.

Simon had said they would fall in love, hadn't he?

Nathan didn't believe for a second that he and Simon were just mindlessly shagging, he definitely had strong feelings for him.

Confused, he turned back to Kelly. "So, hypothetically," he began, "If I had...you know...fallen in love with someone, how would I know?"

Kelly thought about it for a moment. "You just know," she finally decided, "it's like an instinct, like you just want to be around them all the time, it's dead weird."

"Huh." Said Nathan, processing the information. He did just want to be around Simon all the time and he couldn't exactly pinpoint why.

"Maybe I do love him." _Shit._

"Him?!" Said Kelly loudly, making Nathan squint.

"Shhh!" He whispered, Kelly looked around for a moment, no one else had noticed.

"Are you gay?" She whispered back.

"No!" Nathan answered indignantly, a little too quickly.

Kelly shot him a deadpan look. "How can you not be gay if you around shagging blokes?"

"I don't go around shagging blokes," Nathan retorted. "It's just the one, all

right!"

Kelly stared at him for a long moment until her face broke out onto a shit-eating grin, Nathan stared at her incredulously as she laughed.

"I fucking knew it!" She exclaimed, "I knew you 'ad someone!"

Nathan scratched the back of his head and blinked a few times. "You're not mad that it's a guy?"

Before he could say anything else, he felt a large sting to his head as Kelly's hand connected with his head.

He grabbed his head defensively and ducked. "Ow! Stop hitting me!"

"Do you really think I would think less of you because you're seeing a guy?" She

began angrily, "I thought we were mates."

"We _are _mates," Nathan clarified, rubbing his head. "But, you'no, my reputation..."

He saw Kelly's hand shoot out to slap him again but he ducked before the blow connected, he saw that she was smiling at him. "Dickhead," she said, "you're gay, not a fucking Nazi."

Nathan couldn't help smiling, it felt strangely good to have an ally in Kelly, someone he could tell the truth to. Obviously he couldn't tell her the whole truth but he felt like he at least had someone to talk to now.

"So..." Continued Kelly after a while, "what's his name?" She turned to him with a look of surprised excitement. "Oh my God, do I know him?"

Nathan shrugged slightly. "No, you don't know him." He wasn't lying, Kelly really didn't know Simon, but he supposed one day she would.

"What's his name?" She asked again.

"It's really not that important..."

"Come on, just tell me."

"All right," Nathan yielded, "Simon."

Kelly looked like she was contemplating for a moment before she laughed. "Ha, thought you meant our Simon for a moment then."

Nathan laughed too. "Don't worry, I can assure you I'm not shagging Barry."

The pair lapsed into silence for a few seconds, Nathan contented himself with staring at a plastic bag being blown across the floor, Kelly was twiddling her bottle of drink in her hand.

"So, do you love him?" She asked after a while.

Nathan was going to immediately rebuff her, maybe laugh at her joke. But this was Kelly, she knew what love was, and she understood this feelings crap, maybe she could help him understand what the fuck was going on in his head.

"I don't know," said Nathan, exasperated. "I mean, it feels like all the stuff you described but it isn't all..." He waved his arms around, "you know, tweeting birds and trumpets out of a kids film."

"That's 'cause that's all bullshit," said Kelly bluntly, "love hurts like a bitch, and sometimes it can be the biggest pile of wank and make you happy, sad and angry all at the same time. What what matters is if you wanna see their face everyday, even if you want to punch it sometimes."

Nathan laughed, he couldn't help himself. That did kind of sum up how he felt about Simon, sometimes the man just pissed him off with his lovey dovey-ness and his little clocks...but Nathan liked being with him, he liked how he looked forward to seeing him.

"I haven't been this happy with my life in...well, in a fucking long time."

Kelly punched his arm playfully. "You dick." She said.

Nathan turned to her, not quite a smile on his face, but his large eyes looked desperate.

That soft spot inside her heart she would always have for him opened up and she reached out her arm, he leant his head on her shoulder, his curls tickling the side of her neck.

"It's gonna be all right." She promised.

Curtis, Alisha and Simon walked over to the pair of them, Kelly retracted her arm from around Nathan and Nathan sat up a little straighter, attempting to look a little more relaxed than he probably did.

"What are you guys up to?" Asked Curtis.

Kelly smiled sweetly up at him. "It's nothin', mate." She said.

"Well, come on then, I'm bored of this shit." Said Alisha, turning back to the community centre. Curtis followed suit and after a moment of staring at Kelly and Nathan, Simon also followed slowly.

Nathan jumped to his feet and helped Kelly up. "You're not going to tell anyone?" He asked.

Kelly shook her head. "Your secret is safe with me, now, go to Simon, tell him you love him, I'll go and tell that lot that your hamster died or something."

Nathan laughed loudly and Kelly gave him a little wave as she walked to join the rest of the group.

Thinking for only a moment, Nathan dropped the paintbrush he had been holding back into the pot, sending white paint spraying across the concrete floor, before bounding off to Simon's flat.


	5. Chapter 5

Nathan was jumping up and down on the balls of his feet as the lift dipped slowly closer to Simon's flat, it seemed to be going much slower than normal.

Ever since he left the community centre, he seemed to be running on a sort of weird adrenaline rush. He was done, he was done being scared, he was done worrying about his future and what was going to happen, he was going to "live in the moment" as Simon liked to call it, he was just going to admit his feelings and be done with it.

The lift doors finally opened and Nathan all but bolted into the flat but stopped immediately when he saw Simon, he was stood, back to Nathan, staring solemnly at one of his digital clocks.

Nathan had never asked what those clocks were for, he had probably intended to at some point, but lately they had always been preoccupied with other activities.

"Simon?" Asked Nathan tentatively. Simon's shoulder blades twitched slightly, he obviously hadn't known that Nathan was behind him, which was also odd for him.

But he smiled anyway, he loved hearing Nathan's voice, he'd always been in love with his gorgeous Irish lilt.

He turned to Nathan, muscular arms folded but he was smiling, Nathan stood in his orange jumpsuit, a look of concern in his eyes.

Simon didn't mind not rocking that particular look any more, but Nathan always made it work.

"Are you okay?" Asked Nathan, Simon nodded, seemingly easing back into his normal attitude.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Aren't you supposed to be at the community centre?"

Nathan now felt a little awkward, stood there in his jumpsuit, all of the adrenalin he'd previously had had dissipated.

Not knowing what to do with his hands, Nathan began to fidget. "Yeah, it's nothing, I better be getting back, actually." Nathan turned to leave without looking at Simon, taken over by embarrassment.

"Wait."

Nathan turned back to see Simon walking towards him, his usual swagger seemingly returned, he also appeared to be looking Nathan up and down.

"You know, I've always loved you in that jumpsuit." Simon grinned slightly, "In fact, when I was doing my community service, I used to fantasize about it."

Nathan's smirk could probably have been seen by satellites.

"Really?" He said, "so...Barry is fantasizing about me." He thought to himself for a moment. "I'm irresistible."

Simon laughed, but he seemed a little shy all of a sudden, and Nathan realised what had just happened. Simon had just admitted one of his deepest fantasies and like hell was Nathan going to take advantage of it.

Sticking his tongue out, Nathan tantalisingly unzipped the jumpsuit to his waist, revealing the milky white torso beneath.

"So," he began, watching Simon's eyes roaming over his naked flesh, "what exactly was your fantasy?"

Simon walked even closer to him so they were practically touching. "I wanted to make you come so hard you'd shoot all over that jumpsuit, mixing the white in with the orange." He said, barely above a whisper, and Nathan momentarily wondered who was in control of this fantasy.

Nathan swallowed and his hands dropped limply to his sides. He watched silently as Simon reached a hand out and unzipped Nathan's jumpsuit lower, slipping his hand into Nathan's partially exposed black boxers and pulling his soft dick out.

Simon softly stroked Nathan's cock until it began to harden, it was a little painful without any lube, so Simon fingered the precome that was pooling at the head of Nathan's cock and rubbed it down Nathan's shaft, making him squirm.

Sometimes, Nathan got pissed off by how quickly he came when he was with Simon, but right now in this moment, he couldn't give less of a shit if he tried.

Simon was wanking his cock so fast that Nathan thought he might actually rip it off, the heat was building up in his stomach quicker than it had ever done before.

"Fuck..." Nathan choked out, "fuck...Simon, I'm gonna come..."

But before he could, Simon suddenly stopped, his warm fingers left Nathan's dick impossibly hard and streaming at the top.

The loss almost physically hurt.

Nathan was too far gone to get angry, he was just desperate.

"Please," Nathan begged, "please, don't stop."

Simon grinned evilly at him, placing his hand on Nathan's chest, he pushed him down onto the bed.

Nathan stared up quizzically at Simon, now towering over him. "Finish yourself off," Simon all but commanded, "that was the second part of the fantasy."

Nathan wanted to retort with something cocky but he was too far gone, instead, he wrapped his cold hand around his rock hard cock and shivered at the change in temperature.

He began to stroke himself slowly, allowing himself to get used to his cold hand and he shuddered as the heat began to build up again, his hand got faster until all he could think about was coming.

He cried out and Simon watched as thick white spurts hit Nathan's chest and shot all over his orange jumpsuit. He could feel himself getting impossibly hard in his underwear but he continued to watch instead of touching himself, Nathan's eyes were squinted shut, his face was contorted in pleasure, his chest was quivering and his pale flesh and bright jumpsuit was covered in his own come, Simon thought he might come untouched.

After a few moments, Nathan opened his eyes to see Simon staring hungrily at him, Nathan lowered his eyes to see the bulge in Simon's trousers and grinned breathlessly.

Partly because he wanted to be sexy, but mainly because he didn't have his breath back yet, Nathan manoeuvred onto his front and crawled off of the bed and crawled on the floor towards Simon, making sure to arch his back just a little too much to make sure Simon was as turned on as possible.

When he reached Simon, he knelt on his knees and looked up to see animalistic eyes staring back at him.

Not breaking eye contact, Nathan reached up and opened Simon's trousers, dragging them down to his knees.

Simon ran his hand through Nathan's hair, feeling his soft locks tumbling through his fingers. "Are you sure?"

Nathan didn't nod before he eased the tip of Simon's cock into his mouth, Simon hissed slightly at the contact, feeling a small wave of pleasure shoot through him.

Unsure of what to do, Nathan did the only thing he could think of and took more and more of Simon's thick cock into his mouth until he was almost hitting the back of Nathan's throat, but after that, he had nothing.

He didn't want Simon to think he didn't know what he was doing and got really embarrassed because he was just knelt on the floor with Simon's cock in his mouth and...

He felt Simon's hand on his cheek, directing his face up to his. Nathan cast his eyes up to see Simon staring down at him with gentle eyes.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Simon directed Nathan's head back and forth, moving his mouth over his cock.

Simon's hand faltered on Nathan's cheek as the waves of pleasure began to overtake him. Nathan's eyes flashed up to Simon, his eyes were closed and his head was thrown back.

Smiling devilishly around Simon's cock, Nathan pulled up and swirled his tongue around the head of Simon's cock and felt a wave of smugness as he heard a broken moan drift down from above him.

Simon looked down to see Nathan concentrating all his ministrations on his cock, his cheeks were hollowed where he was sucking and he was fucking whimpering around his cock.

"Wait, wait!" Simon called out, Nathan stopped moving his mouth and stared up at his lover, concern in his eyes.

"I'm going to come." Simon clarified, Nathan slowly, agonizingly slowly pulled his mouth of off Simon's cock with an obscene "plop" and it was nearly too much for him.

"What's wrong with that?" Asked Nathan, looking fucking gorgeous with pink, swollen lips glistening with a mixture of his own spit and Simon's precome.

"I want to be inside of you." Simon admitted quietly.

"Oh," said Nathan, grinning, "you should have said."

Nathan stood up and went back to the bed, pulling his jumpsuit and his pants around his ankles and getting down on his hands and knees, ass facing Simon.

Waiting for him to sink his hard cock deep inside of him and make him come screaming out his name, not thinking for a moment that anything could be wrong.

Simon looked over Nathan looking completely hot, but this wasn't what he wanted.

He slowly shed his clothes until he was standing naked, before he walked over to the bed, he put his hands around Nathan's calves and slowly tugged his clothes off of him, Nathan looked behind him to see himself being stripped.

Gently, Simon flipped Nathan over and crawled between his legs until they were facing each other, Nathan didn't think he'd even been handled so delicately in his life.

Nathan's eyes were inquisitive as he clasped his arms around Simon's neck, Simon smiled reassuringly as he leant forward and kissed Nathan so softly and so passionately that Nathan moaned softly into his mouth.

This was when Simon loved Nathan the most, when all the pretence fell away and he showed his weak side, which made him the strongest he ever was.

The pair still stared at each other as Simon reached over to the left side of the bed where he kept the condoms, but stopped when Nathan's hand snaked out and stopped him.

"Wait," said Nathan, his beautiful Irish lilt breathless, Simon looked to see that Nathan's eyes were sparkling. "Don't use one this time."

"Are you sure?" He asked quietly.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah," he smiled slightly, "I don't plan on having sex with anyone other than you for the rest of my life."

Simon had to duck his head down for a moment as he was hit with both an intense guilt at that statement and an intense pleasure as Nathan had basically just told him he loved him for the first time.

Of course Nathan had told him he loved him a million times in the past but this was the very first time, the one he had missed before.

Simon slowly retracted his hand from the side and entwined his fingers with Nathan's, pressing his pale hand into the sheets.

Nathan let out a strangled whimper as he felt Simon's unsheathed cock move inside of him for the first time, he felt like his entire body was on fire.

He looked up to see Simon's eyes were squeezed shut, but only for a moment,

He opened his eyes and they were alive with an emotion Nathan could only call love and it both amazed him and terrified him at the same time.

Simon gathered Nathan up in his arms as he continued to fuck him slowly, no...this wasn't fucking.

Simon was making love to Nathan, for the first time, the last time all at the same time.

Nathan didn't tell Simon to go faster or harder, this slow, excruciating pace was taking him apart, he felt like he was living in stringed out bliss that would last forever.

However, he eventually came, his come splattering the pair of them and Nathan moaned softly as Simon continued to stroke into him, clenching his ass over and over again until he felt Simon's hot, perfect come fill him up.

He let out a strangled moan whilst Simon breathlessly called out his name.

Nathan looked up and took Simon's face into his hands and kissed his skin softly, feeling wrapped up in him.

He felt Simon leave his body and the pair merely collapsed onto the bed without bothering to clean anything up. The feeling of the cooling come drip from his sensitive hole was both tickling and arousing, but he was too tired to do anything about it.

Here in Simon's warm arms, Nathan could do nothing to fight unconsciousness, he vaguely thought he heard Simon whisper how much he loved him into his ear but couldn't be sure it actually happened as he drifted off to sleep, the most content he had ever been in his entire life.


	6. Chapter 6

Nathan zipped up his jumpsuit, checking his appearance out in the mirror in the locker room.

He couldn't help but think about how the last night's activities had involved this particular item of clothing, and grinned as he thought that it would definitely need to make a reappearance.

Cocking his head slightly, Nathan wondered if Simon, the present Simon, could be having this fantasy about him jerking off and coming all over himself right now.

Overcome with giddiness, Nathan turned but Simon was not looking at him, he wasn't even looking in his general direction.

Nathan grinned nonetheless, the boy was certainly discreet.

…

"Nathan, come and push this, will you?"

Nathan laughed loudly and turned to the source of the noise, Kelly was leaning against the large container she had to push around the estate where they deposited the rubbish they found.

"Not a chance." He said, and she gave him the finger.

"Umm, guys." Came the voice of Curtis up ahead.

Nathan turned to see a man standing by his car, he didn't know why Curtis wanted to draw attention to him, he didn't look particularly exciting.

That was before, however, Nathan noticed the man was holding a small, black gun and was pointing it directly at them.

"I don't want a fuss," said the man, in a Northern accent. Gesturing with his gun, Nathan really wished he was a little more careful with that thing, although he couldn't die he was sure being shot wasn't very fun.

"Just gimme your cash, and we'll be done here."

They all looked at each other, unsure of what to do, you always heard of muggings going on around the estate, but ever since they had all been plagued by that storm, the normal things had taken a back seat, so now that it was staring them in the face, they all had no idea what to do.

"Listen," said Simon suddenly, gaining everyone's attention. He walked closer to the Northern man, holding his hands out in front of him. "Just stay calm, you don't need to hurt anyone."

_Jesus fucking Christ._ Nathan thought to himself, Barry was fucking brave, maybe there was more of the future Simon in him than Nathan had thought.

In one swift movement, the Northern man grabbed who was closest to him, that happened to be Alisha, she let out a straggled yelp as the gun was pushed unceremoniously to her temple.

She had shock in her eyes, not just for the gun, but for the fact that the man was grasping at her bare arm and nothing was happening.

Kelly sent a warning look to Nathan who stared back inquisitively.

Kelly rolled her eyes. "I can't hear what he's thinking!" She said out loud.

The gunman laughed. "What, you really think your powers are going to work on me?"

Alisha let out a helpless moan and Simon let out a surprised squeak.

"All right," said Nathan, "you know about the storm, great. What do you want?"

"I want the money." He replied, stony.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Listen, you might not have noticed, but we're a group of young offenders on a council estate, we don't have an money."

"Bullshit!" The gun man shouted, shoving the gun roughly against Alisha's head, who was starting to cry at this point, Nathan winced.

"If you've got powers, you've got cash." He said, _nice logic._

He moved the gun so it was pointing at the group, near Simon, Nathan found himself itching to get near to him, nervous that the gun was so close to him.

The gun man threw Alisha back to the group in the direction of Nathan who had to twist his long body to avoid touching her skin, he ended up grabbing her around her clothed waist to steady her and she clung to the front of his jumpsuit, sobbing quietly.

"It's okay," he said quietly to her.

"Thanks," she choked out, Curtis walked slowly over to the pair and took Alisha out of Nathan's arms and comforted her.

They all jerked in shock at the sound of a gun shot, they looked towards the gun man who was pointing his weapon into the air. A warning shot.

"Bring £20,000 to the community centre by midnight or you're all dead." He said, and with that, he got into his car and drove off.

They all walked slowly back to the community centre, abandoning the dustcart.

They sat Alisha down in the hall of the centre, Kelly stroking her back soothingly with Curtis and Simon surrounding her.

Nathan walked over to the group and handed Alisha a steaming mug of tea.

"Thanks," she said, "why are you being so nice?"

"I can be nice sometimes," he merely replied.

"So, what are we going to do?" Asked Simon quietly.

There was silence until Curtis let out an irritated huff. "Where is that guy in the mask when you need him?"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "come on, you can't expect him to save your arse all the time, he's probably busy."

Nathan knew that this was the sort of thing Simon could handle, but he didn't want him anywhere near this danger, he wanted him jumping off buildings somewhere else. Safe.

Kelly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Nathan's right. We need to sort this one out for ourselves."

"But that guy knew we had powers!" Alisha piped up, voice still shaking slightly. "Like he could sense it or something."

"Your power didn't work on him," said Simon, sounding more confident. "Or yours," he said, turning to Kelly. "He seems to be immune to all powers as well, which makes him indestructible."

The weight of his words left everyone silent for moment.

"But we don't have any money to give him," said Curtis after a moment, sounding desperate.

"Well, we must have something!" Alisha responded.

"I was wondering what I was going to do with all of that money in my Swedish bank accounts," said Nathan sarcastically.

Alisha glared at him. "I guess you're back to being a prick."

"I have my moments."

Kelly shoved him slightly, "will you guys stop fighting? We need to do something!"

"Look-" began Nathan, walking so he faced all of them. "Why don't you just leave this to me? He'll come and I'll tell him we don't have the money and he'll kill me, think he's got his revenge, then move on."

Before he could say anything else, Kelly slapped him around the head.

Nathan grabbed his stinging head, ducking away from Kelly. "Ow, why do you keep hitting me?"

"Didn't you listen to Simon?" She shouted at him, "this bloke's immune to powers, which means that if he kills you, you could actually die."

Nathan stared at her for a moment until he practically flopped onto the floor with the rest of them. "What the fuck are we supposed to do, then?"

Simon stared at Nathan's jumpsuit inquisitively. "What's that on your jumpsuit?" He asked, and Nathan didn't have to look to know what he was talking about.

Nathan waggled his eyebrows at him. "What do you think it is?" He said.

Simon continued to stare at him in confusion and Nathan looked away, allowing himself a little giggle before the room fell silent again.

"So, how are we supposed to get this money?"

"We could rob a bank." Said Simon quietly, in that usual way he said things like he wasn't joking.

"How are we supposed to rob a bank?" Asked Nathan, trying to keep the cynicism out of his voice. He was trying his best to be kinder to Simon but every now and then he did slip up.

Simon turned to look at him with a glint in his eye that was all too familiar. "I can turn invisible." He reminded the group.

"It would never work." Said Curtis after a moment, "we don't have enough time. Maybe we should just leave?"

"How are we supposed to just leave?" Asked Alisha, "we've got family here."

"And community service," chipped in Kelly.

"I don't know, maybe..."

Nathan stood, allowing the group to continue talking whilst he walked slowly to the window, trying to look outside without drawing attention to himself.

Despite the fact that he wanted to keep Simon out of this, he couldn't help hoping he would turn up out of the blue.

Nathan took his phone out of his pocket, but stopped himself before he could call Simon.

"I think we should rob a bank."

Nathan turned around to find that Alisha had said this.

"But...I thought you said it wouldn't work?" Said Simon timidly.

"I think we should, too." Agreed Nathan, and they all turned to look at him. "What?" He asked.

"Why are you agreeing with me?" Asked Simon, and Nathan didn't have an answer. He supposed he was just so desperate for his Simon to be here that he got confused.

"I think we should just do something!" Nathan replied defensively, turning back to the window.

…

"Why do you keep looking outside?" Asked Kelly, Nathan turned to her.

They were all seated in Alisha's car, driving towards the bank and Nathan couldn't believe they were actually doing this, this was the sort of shit that happened in films, not real life.

Then again, their lives were more like a film than real life.

"No reason," Nathan answered, but he wished he would see that familiar black against the sky.

Alisha parked the car and they all looked out to see a lorry outside of the bank, there were men carrying timelocked suitcases of money into the back entrance of the bank.

"Good luck," said Curtis in Simon's general direction.

Simon nodded once and suddenly his head began to shake violently, and then he was no longer there. They all watched as the door opened and Simon, presumably, got out of the car.

Did Simon still have his power? The thought had never occurred to Nathan, he'd never even asked.

He turned when Kelly nudged him. "You all right?" She asked quietly, "you seem a bit out of it."

Nathan nodded but she still look concerned. "I guess I just don't like the fact there's someone out there that can kill me." He said.

She nodded, it was partly true.

Alisha yelped in shock as Simon reappeared in his seat, holding one of the suitcases.

"How was it?" Asked Kelly.

"Surprisingly easy." Simon answered.

They travelled back to the community centre in silence.

…

They all sat in the hall of the community centre, waiting. Conversation had died down a long time ago as they had all run out of things to talk about.

They had dealt with enough at this point that the threat of death wasn't that intimidating, but there was still that sense of fear hanging in the air.

Alisha yawned from across the room and Nathan checked the time on his Ipod.

11:47pm.

He would be here soon.

Nathan put his Ipod back into his pocket, trying not to shift too much as Kelly was resting her head on his shoulder.

His eyes lingered on her for a moment, she was in danger now too, it wasn't just him. Plus, she had never been immortal in the first place.

Nathan wondered if anything would have happened between them if Simon hadn't come along. But Simon had come along and he'd changed everything.

Kelly's head moved from Nathan's shoulder at the sound of broken glass, it was obvious who had just arrived.

They all stood and faced the door as the gunman walked in, brandishing said weapon.

"We have your money." Said Simon, fear in his eyes, as he picked up the timelocked suit case and put it on the floor.

Keeping his eyes on him, the gunman walked forward and retrieved the suitcase.

Nathan's eyes darted around the room.

The gunman put the suitcase behind him and lifted his gun to Nathan, whose eyes widened.

"I think I'll start with the cocky shit." Said the gunman in his Northern accent.

"No!" Shouted Kelly, "you said you'd leave us alone!"

But Nathan barely heard her, he was feeling fear, genuine, proper fear for the first time in a long time and he did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

Nathan skid round a corner and out of the main hall as fast as his legs could carry him, which was pretty fast.

He could hear shouting behind him and after a moment he heard the thud of footsteps but didn't allow himself to slow down.

_Just breathe..._He tried to tell himself, he had to stay calm or he wasn't going to survive.

He could hear the footsteps getting louder, the gunman was running now, too.

The only small comfort Nathan could take out of his situation was that at least he was leading him away from his friends.

Maybe that was the first kind thing he'd ever done for them.

Nathan turned a corner, too preoccupied in his thoughts and came to a skidding halt.

He was stood before a fire exit door, a dead end. He cursed himself and turned around only to see the gunman standing there, blocking his way out.

Swearing loudly, Nathan turned back to the fire exit and pushed on it but it wouldn't open. He tried pushing again, harder and harder, but the thing would not budge.

"You're not going anywhere." Came that insane Northern accent.

Nathan swallowed, feeling that intense dread going through his veins again. He had so many mixed emotions, like how did the only guy that could possibly kill him manage to decide to kill him? Or why did he deserve this? Or what was going to happen to everyone he left behind?

Nathan turned slowly and winced as he heard the gun shot.

But nothing happened. At least not to him.

Nathan watched as the bullet merely stopped, mid flight, hanging completely motionless in the air.

The gunman stared in confusion, momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to be killing Nathan.

"What the fuck?" He said.

Then, Nathan watched in absolute horror as blood began to clot around the bullet, bleeding out through the air.

Then the space between Nathan and the gunman became solid, there stood Simon, clad in his ski gear with the bullet embedded deeply in his chest.

"Noooo!" Screamed Nathan, as Simon raised his gloved hand with a gun of his own, and shot the stunned gunman through the neck.

He fell to the floor, gargling, but Nathan couldn't give a single fuck as the body of Simon staggered back and fell against him, sending them both to the ground.

Nathan dragged Simon into his lap, ripping the ski mask from his face to reveal a pair of startling eyes wide open and dried blood at his mouth.

"No, no, no..." Nathan muttered, unaware that silent tears were falling from his eyes. He saw the blood pooling at Simon's stomach. "No, no, no..."

Simon reached up and stroked the side of Nathan's face, smiling slightly at him with what little strength he had left.

"Hey," he began gently, "it's okay."

Nathan shook his head as he began to gently cradle Simon. "No, no, this can't be happening."

Simon winced in pain and Nathan let out a strangled cry, but Simon's eyes didn't leave Nathan's once.

"Things need to happen in a specific order," he explained in a breathy voice. "...So that you can be saved."

Nathan stopped shaking for a moment as things began to click in his muddled brain, he began to cry again. "So you knew?" He said through sobs, "you knew this was going to happen." It wasn't a question but Simon nodded anyway.

"Why!?" Nathan shouted, "Why didn't you just let me die!? Let me die, not you!"

Simon's hand on Nathan's cheek began to rub soft circles on his skin like they would when they were falling asleep together, so wrapped up in their love that nothing else mattered.

Nathan closed his eyes and sobbed into the movement, knowing he would never feel this safe again.

"Because it never got any easier." Simon replied quietly, by now his face had gone a ghostly pale and Nathan knew what death looked like.

Nathan shook his head, simply denying death. "You can't die," he began, "you can't die because I love you."

A ghostly smile formed on Simon's face. "I'll still be here."

Nathan shook his head. "No, no, you won't. I don't love him, I love you. Please."

"It's you, remember that." Said Simon, "it's your love that makes him become me."

Nathan let out a wail, he couldn't help it. "So I make you die."

Simon shook his head, but he looked like he was in pain doing it, like the smallest movement took all his effort. "No, you just give me something worth dying for."

"But you can't go," Nathan sobbed, his grip on Simon becoming tighter. "You can't, you took the shitty pieces of my life and you put them back together, you can't take that away."

"I'm not taking that away." Simon explained, pulling out a box of matches from his jacket. The tears stopped for a moment as Nathan regarded the box, knowing what Simon was going to say to him before he said it.

"You need to burn us both," Nathan shook his head but Simon grabbed his hand. "No, Nathan, you need to burn us both, no one can know about this, especially Simon."

Nathan shook his head again. "No, no, I can't."

Simon pressed the box of matches into his hand. "You have too," he stroked along the side of Nathan's face, cold fingers brushing over his lips.

"It's going to be okay." He promised quietly before the light left his eyes and he slumped backwards against Nathan.

Nathan stared, dumbfounded, at the scene before him, before he slowly lowered his head and rested his forehead against Simon's cold one.

The entire world seemed to stop for a moment until Nathan let out one scream of complete agony.

Numbly, Nathan lit a clump of matches and flung them on the floor, not looking at the blaze that burned behind him as he walked away.

He never even checked if the gunman was dead.

He walked back to the group, his footsteps echoing in his head, it was the only sound he could hear.

When he reached them, they all stood immediately, but Nathan didn't look at Simon once.

"What happened?" Asked Curtis urgently, "we heard gun shots, and screaming."

"I got the gun," began Nathan, "I killed him, it's dealt with." Nathan's voice was hollow and empty and Kelly could swear he had dried tear stains on his face, but could hear nothing from his mind.

"Are you okay?" Asked Simon, for a moment it seemed like Nathan didn't even acknowledge him, but after a moment he merely shook his head.

He walked slowly out of the door of the community centre, they tried to call out to him but their shouts fell on deaf ears.

Concerned, Simon went to follow him but Kelly reached out a hand and held him back, believing that if he was in pain, he'd rather be with that boyfriend of his than with Simon.


End file.
